This month we’re featuring a very impressive natural lot from Finca El Aguila in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador. Natural meaning the coffee fruit is not pulped from the seed as part of processing. We have enjoyed washed Bourbon (coffee varietal) from them for several years and this year we had the opportunity of sourcing part of a small lot of their natural crop. Definitely up there for our best of 2018 selection and well worth trying if you have the chance. Fifth generation coffee farmer Ricardo Ariz has taken extra special care by hand selecting only the ripest cherries harvested. The fruit is then cleaned in tanks and taken out to water channels to ensure even density (ie. no floaters) then transferred to raised beds for 5 days where they are turned manually every 15 minutes to ensure uniform drying before another 15 days sun drying on patios.

We had the honour of running this years Western Australian World AeroPress competition held on Friday night @laika.coffee lots and lots of fun partying with Perth’s coffee crew. Thanks so all for making it down to compete or spectate. Particular thanks to our event sponsors (in nor particular order): @otherside_co @swanvalleywines @gatewayprinting @sofreshpeche @bestwatertechnology @waterfilterservices @whipper_snapper_distillery @whistleblower_tea @sipimports @lamarzoccoau @departmentofbrewology @coffeetoolsdist @aero.press @espressoworksau @cafeimportsaustralia

Anyone keen to see the worlds most unorthodox coffee competition, the WA Regional AeroPress house party. Next Friday night 7th September at Laika, Lathlain. No ticket to required. More info @perthaeropress

Home baristas! Last day to enter to win a sponsorship pack to this years AeroPress comp. Nominate someone who may not work in the coffee industry but is just as geeked out and passionate about their morning brew. All you need to do is 1) post a photo of them working their coffee magic somewhere and 2) tag / follow @perthaeropress they can win loads of free coffee and the lucky last wild card entry to the AeroPress comp on 7th September.

Our friends @empire6714 have done it again. Best coffee in the Pilbara for 2018. So proud to be working with such passionate crew who are constantly pushing quality & service levels in this incredible region. #6714

If your looking for good, cheap night out on Saturday get down and support @localbloodbrothers a crew of awesome local peeps doing their bit to make some noise around donating blood. 1 in 3 Aussies will need blood at some point (we’ve all got some to give) and unfortunately a lot of the time that means kids who end up at Perth children’s Hospital. There will be burgs by @shortorderburgerco Beers by @feralbrewing and loads of other goodness for you to enjoy. 100% profits go to support PCH.

PSA. We’ve got a problem. We all love Coffee and there is so many great local roasters and cafes around Perth these days we all get to support and enjoy. But the way things are going soon enough we may be a lot harder to get a tasty brew and we are genuinely concerned. If our demand for coffee continues as it has at around 1.9-2%pa then (even without taking to account the effect of climate change) we will have a shortage of around 60 million bags by 2050 – 180 million if we take into account existing trends in climate. Feeling somewhat like a helpless spectator we asked Rick Reinheat, CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association what he thinks we can do, as a small batch roaster in Perth participating in this industry if only at the micro level. Part of his advice was to make sure we pay good money for our coffee. Buying responsibly to ensure farmers have improving value over their production. Together with investment in science & agriculture to improve existing farming practices, such as developing new temperature / disease resistant coffee varietals that taste amazing. This month we reserved two of our customers favourite single origin coffees, blended them 50/50 to make a limited edition blend. We called this “Black Gold” because we couldn’t really think of anything else at the time and distributed it across our wholesale customers over two weeks. We plan to do this every few months with all money received from its sale to be donated to World Coffee Research @wcoffeeresearch An organisation made up of coffee professionals dedicated to problems like these so that future generations can enjoy Coffee too.